Recently, Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Rob Neu revealed that the district was under investigation by the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. The details are chilling. Neu, who just started in the job, showed courage just by reporting his findings.

Political candidates and elected officials in Oklahoma often talk about right-sizing state government. The phrase is a staple of campaign materials, public speeches, and more. But what’s the right size?

It’s been more than four years since the president signed the Affordable Care Act. For political reasons, the law was written so unpopular provisions would become effective after the most recent presidential election.

None of us like it when someone says one thing and then does something else. Sadly many Americans have come to expect that kind of hypocrisy from our elected officials, especially in Washington, D.C. Amid this growing darkness, Oklahoma’s retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn is a bright and shining light.

Oklahoma taxpayers spend more than $700 million per year on prisons and related programs like parole and probation. As a state, we lock up far more of our population than the national average. Whether we care about the financial costs or the social costs, we need to ask hard questions about who we are putting in prison and whether there are better ways to do justice.

With the horrific and heartbreaking news coming out of an Oklahoma high school recently, including the alleged rape of a 16-year-old student in a bathroom during lunchtime, the issues of school safety and bullying are once again in the news.

The president noted after the recent election that he hears the one-third of Americans who voted, but he also hears the two-thirds of Americans who didn’t vote. The president then suggested he would listen to and work with Republicans and their policy suggestions, so long as he approved.